Hi, I’m Sen, and this is Today in History – the audio journey through time where you’ll learn about what happened on this day in years past. What’s more, you’ll practice your English listening skills and learn a few new words along the way.

Today’s events cover brave people challenging social standards, but also a deadly earthquake in China. If this sounds too heavy for you right now, come back to today’s events another time.

I’d recommend listening to this episode twice. First time through, don’t worry about understanding exactly what is being said. It’s not about trying to recognize every word, but rather listening to the sounds and getting used to the rhythm of the speech. Then, on the second time through, you can try and focus more on the words, phrases and their meaning.

Let’s begin. So, what happened today in history?

On July 28, 1902, First Nations artist Albert Namatjira was born in Australia. With his popular landscapes, he became one of Australia’s greatest ever painters, receiving international acclaim. Because of his fame, he and his wife were the first First Nations people to be granted Australian citizenship, albeit restricted, in 1957. It wasn’t for another ten years that the rest of the First Nations people were granted similar rights.

On the same day in 1946, poet, author, human rights activist and feminist Fahmida Riaz was born in Meerut, India. She grew up in Pakistan, where her writing broke social taboos by addressing topics of female desire, the female body and sexuality. Her progressiveness set new standards for Urdu literature, but angered the conservative society at the time. In 1981, her work on a political magazine resulted in her exile to India for seven years.

On July 28, 1976, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the city of Tangshan, China. Within minutes, most of the buildings in Tangshan collapsed or became unstable. More than 240,000 people were officially reported as dead, but many believe the figure was as high as 700,000.

Now, rewind, and have a second listen. Try focusing more on the individual words this time.

That’s it for today. But, I’ll be back tomorrow with another episode of Today in History.